ATTN: News Editor	FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, May 22nd, 2002
NETIZENS EXPRESS SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINIAN CAUSE Maktoob.com sets up online fund for Palestine   Dubai: A rousing call by Maktoob.com, the leading online Arab community in the world, to express solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of the continuing Israeli offensive, received an overwhelming show of support from both Arabs and non-Arabs all over the world. Maktoob.com members spanning the entire Arab world and from such diverse places as the United States, South America, Europe, the Far East and Australia voiced their concern at the Israeli offensive on the Palestinian people and demanded a full withdrawal from Palestinian territory. At the same time, Maktoob.com (www.maktoob.com) also announced that it was setting up an online fund for Palestinians and urged its more than 2.3 million members to donate to the cause. “The Middle East crisis has dominated world headlines for a long time now and we at Maktoob.com anticipated a high member interactivity on this issue due to the fact that developments such as these are of extreme importance to Arabs wherever they may be based,” explained Samih Toukan, CEO, Maktoob.com. Maktoob.com sought opinions from its members on various developments in the escalating Israeli-Palestinian crisis, through email shots. The responses, sought in the form of online member surveys, votes as well as discussion forums, saw the Maktoob.com’s members turning up in large numbers to register their strong protest at the Israeli aggression. Reem Madanat, Marketing and Content Manager at Maktoob.com, said that the website would also donate its online advertising revenue raised during the campaign period to the fund. At the same time, the Maktoob.com homepage has been redesigned to express Maktoob’s solid support for the Palestinian people. “We will use Maktoob to its maximum capacity to express our support and dedication to our brothers and sisters in Palestine. Through our various activities, we have also been urging our members to help do something to stop the violence in the region. The response has been truly touching,” explained Madanat. “Furthermore, a vast majority of our members have been closely monitoring the developments in the Middle East and we are lucky to be able to gauge their insight into the turmoil.” The Maktoob.com Online Fund for Palestine, set up in association with the Welfare Association, an independent Palestinian development foundation, and Arab Bank, is part of the website’s wide-ranging community-based programmes. Members can donate to the fund directly through their banks or through a secure credit card system. For more information, please go to http://www.maktoob.com/fund/index_e.html. Maktoob.com (www.maktoob.com) has become a landmark development for the Arab world, emphasising the region’s growing importance as a key international IT player. Since its launch four years ago, Maktoob.com has played a crucial role in uniting Arabs worldwide by providing sophisticated and reliable web-based communications and community tools, including the Arab world’s first free bilingual Web-based email service. Maktoob.com is the first Arabic / English web-based email solutions provider and leading virtual community for Arabs around the world. Launched in October 1998, Maktoob.com gained instant success among Arabs around the world. It currently boasts of a membership base of more than 2.3 million registered users worldwide.   Besides the free email service, the company offers a range of interactive web-based facilities including Voice Mail, WAP, a comprehensive business directory, Arabic music, chat, online auction, electronic greeting cards and information services.   For more details, please contact, Edward D’Mello Headline Public Relations Tel: 009714 – 3475006; Fax: 009714 – 3475013 e-mail: edward@headlinepr.com
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